Impersonalisation and reference in English and Spanish: evidence from newspaper discourse
In this chapter I investigate the use of impersonal pronouns and other non-specific NPs in semantically impersonal constructions in newspaper reports in English and Spanish. These linguistic strategies are used by the writer in order to hide and mitigate the agency or avoid culpability. In English t...
| Autor: | |
|---|---|
| Tipo de recurso: | capítulo de libro |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2002 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) |
| Repositorio: | Docta Complutense |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/61031 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/61031 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | 070:808.1 811.111'367 811.134.2'367 811.111'42 811.134.2'42 Impersonalisation Mystification of agency Newspaper discourse Personal pronouns Indefinite pronouns Non-specific NPs Impersonal infinitive clauses. Lengua española Lingüística Filología inglesa 57 Lingüística 5505.10 Filología |
| Sumario: | In this chapter I investigate the use of impersonal pronouns and other non-specific NPs in semantically impersonal constructions in newspaper reports in English and Spanish. These linguistic strategies are used by the writer in order to hide and mitigate the agency or avoid culpability. In English the impersonal use of ‘we’ and ‘they’ often occur as “corporative” reference to non-specific groups of individuals. In Spanish their omission may perform the same function. Other impersonalisation strategies include the use of indefinite pronouns with a generic or ‘vague’ interpretation, other non-specific NPs ranging from generic ones, such as ‘people’, to more specific and modified NPs referring to a single individual or groups of individuals, whose identity is still not fully specified. |
|---|